Players who played for the Marlins and Royals | Immaculate Grid Answers for Grid 115 July 26, 2023

Are you hooked on Immaculate Grid, the daily trivia game from Baseball Reference? We sure are! We’ll warn you right now—this blog post contains spoilers. But if you’re looking for a little help with today’s grid (or you already filled it out and want to know who else qualified) read on.

To fill out today’s grid, you need to choose a player who played for both the Marlins and Royals. There were 63 players who played with both Miami and Kansas City. Here are some examples:

John Buck

John Buck was a big league catcher in parts of eleven seasons. He was a member of the American League All-Star team in 2010.

A seventh round selection of the Houston Astros in 1998, Buck made his debut with the Kansas City Royals in 2004, one day after being one of many components in a three-team trade that landed Carlos Beltrán in Houston. He showed some pop in K.C., with several seasons of double-digit bombs including an 18-home run season in 2007, but never once batted above .250 for the team. He landed with the Toronto Blue Jays on a one-year deal before the 2010 season and broke out. In 118 games, Buck slashed .281/.314/.489 with 20 bombs (13 at the All-Star break, tops in the bigs) and 66 RBI, making his lone All-Star appearance count with a double off St. Louis Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright.

Jeff Conine

Jeff Conine was a two-time All-Star during his seventeen-year career. Known as “Mr. Marlin” for his work with the Florida Marlins, he was a member of the inaugural Marlins squad in 1993 and the only player to have played on both of the team’s World Series champions, in 1997 and 2003.

Originally a pitcher, Conine went 5-4 with a 6.06 ERA and 2 saves in three seasons at UCLA. He was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the 58th round of the 1987 amateur draft. Moved to first base, he made his pro debut in 1988 with the Baseball City Royals, hitting .272 and leading his club with 10 home runs and 59 RBI. Back with Baseball City the next year, he hit .273 and clubbed 14 homers to lead the team again. He had a breakout season in 1990, hitting .320 with 15 home runs and 95 RBI, and was named Southern League Most Valuable Player. As a result, he earned a September call-up to the majors. He made his big league debut on September 16th, as a pinch hitter facing the Cleveland Indians, and got his first start and hit the next day against the Minnesota Twins. Limited to 51 games with the Omaha Royals in 1991 due to a wrist injury, he returned in 1992 and hit .302 with 20 homers. He earned another late-season call up to Kansas City that year, hitting .253 in 28 games.

Emilio Bonifácio

Emilio Bonifácio was signed by Arizona Diamondbacks scout Junior Noboa in 2001. He played for the DSL Diamondbacks in 2002 before coming stateside in 2003.

Bonifácio hit .250/.357/.333 with 5 runs scored and 3 steals (without getting caught) in six games for the Tigres del Licey in the 2008 Caribbean Series as the leadoff man for the champions. He made his big league debut with Arizona as a September call up in 2007 and saw limited action with them and the Washington Nationals before playing 127 games with the Fish in 2009. Emilio broke out in July 2011 with a 26-game hitting streak, the second longest in the history of the Florida Marlins. Largely as a result of the streak, he was named the National League’s Player of the Month for July, having hit .380 with a .466 on-base percentage during the month, while stealing 16 bases and scoring 27 runs. He played 152 games for the Marlins that season, in spite of not having a set position: he started 61 at shortstop, 48 in the outfield spread between all three spots, 30 at third base and a pair at second base. Even with this moving around, he accumulated 641 plate appearances, and hit .296, scoring 78 runs, stealing 40 bases and hitting 26 doubles.

Omar Infante

Omar Infante‘s older brother Asdrubal Infante was a promising pitching prospect in the Detroit Tigers’ organization before he was murdered in a robbery in Venezuela in 1999.

On April 15, 2012, Omar had the distinction of being the first member of the Miami Marlins to homer in the team’s new ballpark, Marlins Park. By going deep off the Houston Astros’ J.A. Happ in the 2nd inning of the Marlins’ fourth home game of the year, he became the first batter to set off the gaudy mechanical flamingoes sculpture in the park’s outfield. It capped an unlikely power surge by Omar, as it was already his fourth long ball of the year, after hitting 7 in 2011 and 8 in 2010. He hit .287 in 85 games for Miami, with 23 doubles and 8 homers, before being traded on July 23rd to the Detroit Tigers alongside P Anibal Sanchez in return for three prospects led by P Jacob Turner. The Tigers, while in first place, had struggled to find production from their second basemen, as Ramon Santiago and Ryan Raburn had only combined for a .201 average at that point. He took over as the full-time second baseman for the remainder of the season and provided a measure of stability by hitting .257 with 7 doubles, 5 triples and 4 homers over 64 games. He went 6 for 17 (.353) in the ALDS as the Tigers defeated the Oakland Athletics, then 4 for 18 (.222) in a four-game sweep of the New York Yankees in the ALCS. In the 2012 World Series against the San Francisco Giants, he was one of the Tigers’ few productive hitters, going 5 for 15 from the 9th spot in the batting order. However, he did not score or drive in a run as the Tigers were swept, and in the bottom of the 9th inning in Game 4 had his wrist broken by a Santiago Casilla fastball. Thus, he was no longer on the field when the Giants’ scored the Series-winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

Jim Eisenreich

Jim Eisenreich played 15 years in the majors in spite of missing the 1985 and 1986 seasons. He hit an impressive .361 in 1996 in 338 at-bats, and was also over .300 several other times. In the 1997 World Series he went 4-for-8.

He is the player from St. Cloud State University with the most major league at-bats.

He was drafted only one round after his college teammate, shortstop Bob Hegman, was drafted by the Kansas City Royals. Though Eisereich had a successful major league career, Hegman made only one appearance in the big leagues, and never saw an at-bat, as a defensive replacement on the World Series winning 1985 Kansas City Royals.

All 63 Players

You can see all 63 players who played with both Miami and Kansas City on Baseball Reference. Good luck with your grid!

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